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Three Will Be Chasing Title in Time Trial

ANGOULÊME, France, July 27 — After nearly three weeks, numerous doping scandals, two team ejections and plenty of ill feelings, the Tour de France heads into the final time trial Saturday as a still-undecided race, in which any of the top three riders has a legitimate chance to win.

Alberto Contador of the Discovery Channel team holds a lead of 1 minute 50 seconds over Cadel Evans of Predictor-Lotto and 2:49 over Levi Leipheimer, his Discovery Channel teammate. They will be, in reverse order, the final three riders to start the 34.5-mile time-trial course Saturday, starting three minutes apart.

The mostly flat course will travel from Cognac back to this town in central France, where Friday’s 18th stage also ended. That stage, measuring 131.1 miles, was won by Sandy Casar, a French rider for the Française Des Jeux team. Casar outsprinted three breakaway companions for the victory.

The time-trial course travels from west to east and will probably provide riders a steady tailwind. It varies only about 350 feet from its highest point to its lowest, and probably favors Evans, who finished the first time trial behind only Alexander Vinokourov, who later failed a doping test and withdrew from the race.

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Alberto Contador, who has a 1:50 lead over Cadel Evans, may be tested in the mostly flat time trial.Credit
Oliver Weiken/European Pressphoto Agency

Contador, who finished more than a minute behind Evans in the first time trial, acknowledged yesterday that the time trial would be a make-or-break stage for him.

“It will be the most difficult day of my sporting career,” Contador said after being awarded the race leader’s yellow jersey for a second day Friday. “It could change my life, so it’s a big and important day for me.”

Contador’s prospects for holding off Evans look tenuous, especially given that he lost far more time to Evans earlier this year in a time trial at the Dauphiné Libéré race, which many riders use as a tuneup for the Tour de France. There, on a 25-mile course, Contador lost 2:43, an amount that if repeated Saturday would put Evans in the yellow jersey for the ride into Paris and, probably, give him the Tour victory.

Contador is aware, no doubt, that some riders have responded to wearing the yellow jersey with a stronger-than-expected time trial.

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The former race leader Michael Rasmussen surprised nearly everyone by keeping the yellow jersey after the first time trial of this year’s Tour.

Evans may have more to fear from Leipheimer, who is only 59 seconds behind him. Leipheimer has proven at times that he can ride a strong time trial, but his performances have varied. Leipheimer won time trials at the Tour of California and the Tour of Georgia this year, races in which Evans did not compete.

In the first time trial at this year’s Tour, Evans beat Leipheimer by 1:25. But part of that gain probably came from the fact that the course in the Stage 13 time trial was fairly hilly, favoring Evans, a former mountain biker.

In their only other head-to-head battle this year, at the Dauphiné Libéré, Evans beat Leipheimer by 32 seconds in the time trial.

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Sandy Casar of France won the 131-mile ride from Cahors to Angouleme.Credit
Christophe Ena/Associated Press

That performance might be misleading as well, because Leipheimer said coming into this year’s Tour de France that he intended specifically to hold back at the Dauphiné. Last year, in winning that race, he peaked too early and performed poorly at the Tour, finishing 13th, his lowest finish of the four Tours he has completed.

Just how widely Leipheimer’s performance can vary was evident at last year’s Tour, when Evans beat him by 2:21 on the next-to-last day of the Tour and by a whopping 4:17 in the early time trial.

If the race comes down to a handful of seconds, Leipheimer could end up paying dearly for two critical mistakes. During Friday’s stage, Evans gained three seconds over both Leipheimer and Contador when a gap opened in the main pack of riders as it crossed the finish line, roughly eight and a half minutes behind Casar, the stage winner.

Leipheimer was also penalized 10 seconds in the eighth stage, the first big day of climbing in the Alps, for holding on to the Discovery team car at one point during the race.

The infraction occurred after Leipheimer’s chain came off on a descent. He stopped to change bikes, then, he said, he needed an adjustment to his bike by the team mechanic.

While those types of adjustments are often made while the rider is moving and holding onto a car without penalty, Leipheimer was penalized — perhaps because when television cameras zoomed in on him, the mechanic appeared to be doing little work other than towing Leipheimer along.

A version of this article appears in print on , on page D2 of the New York edition with the headline: Three Will Be Chasing Title in Time Trial. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe